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One Public Estate

Our award-winning One Public Estate programme – delivered in partnership by the Local Government Association, Office of Government Property (OGP) within the Cabinet Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), supports locally-led partnerships of public sector bodies to kickstart regeneration and transform public service delivery.

Banner with OPE logos and the words celebrating 10 years since 2013

About One Public Estate

One Public Estate (OPE) began in 2013 working with 12 council areas and a handful of government departments. To date it has supported over 800 projects, spanning 98 per cent of English councils, 12 government departments and hundreds of public sector stakeholders, helping transform local communities and public services right across the country.

How we work

OPE is an established national programme delivered in partnership by the Office of Government Property (OGP) within the Cabinet Office and the Local Government Association (LGA). It provides practical and technical support and funding to councils to deliver ambitious property-focused programmes in collaboration with central government and other public sector partners.

OPE partnerships across the country have shown the value of working together across the public sector and taking a strategic approach to asset management. At its heart, the programme is about getting more from our collective assets - whether that’s catalysing major service transformation such as health and social care integration and benefits reform; unlocking land for new homes and commercial space; or creating new opportunities to save on running costs or generate income. This is encompassed in three core objectives:

  • creating economic growth (new homes and jobs)
  • delivering more integrated, customer-focused services
  • generating efficiencies, through capital receipts and reduced running costs. 

By 2023 OPE partnerships have delivered over 40,000 jobs, releasing land for almost 38,000 new homes, raising £576 million in capital receipts and cutting running costs by £99 million.

The essentials

  • Generating ideas; a shared vision shaping for public sector assets
  • Bringing public sector partners together through locally led partnerships
  • Ongoing professional and technical support, including asset mapping
  • OPE Revenue funding unlocking significant benefits through colocation opportunities, providing land for homes and jobs, improving public service delivery, reducing running costs for improved public sector efficiency and delivering capital receipts for reinvestment
  • Brownfield Land Release Funding (BLRF) to unlock council-owned sites for housing, by addressing site viability issues
  • Place Pilot Programme – exploring long term collective estate ambitions in five pilot areas across England

Partnership support

  • Funding through OPE and BLRF
  • Regional support from LGA and OGP
  • Access across central government
  • Sharing OPE best practice and case studies
  • Opportunities workshops to develop your programme of work
  • Support to change policy to assist local delivery
  • Technical support on benchmarking and data

Contact us

To get in touch with us please contact your regional OPE programme manager, or email us at [email protected].

For any Freedom of Information requests regarding the OPE programme, please email Cabinet Office at [email protected].

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One Public Estate – celebrating 10 years

Throughout 2023 One Public Estate is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. We are celebrating the places, projects and people who have co-located public services and unlocked the value of public sector assets, including land for homes.

One Public Estate invitation to apply

One Public Estate and Land Release Fund prospectus

The One Public Estate (OPE) programme is a partnership between the Office of Government Property in Cabinet Office, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

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One Public Estate and Self and Custom-Build September 2021

In the 2020 Spending Review, the Chancellor announced a new Brownfield Land Release Fund to support local authorities bring forward sites for housing development and self and custom-build serviced plots. In response the One Public Estate programme launched the Self and Custom Build Fund.

Highlighted pages

LGA improvement support: Annual report 2023/24

A review of the programmes that made up our sector support offer in 2023/24 and demonstrates the ways we supported councils to improve, develop leadership, make data-informed decisions, share notable practice, and – in so doing – build capacity and capability in local government.

Contact One Public Estate

Access our map highlighting our full list of One Public Estate (OPE) contacts in each local authority area – hover over your area to reveal the relevant contact information.

One Public Estate – celebrating 10 years

Throughout 2023 One Public Estate is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. We are celebrating the places, projects and people who have co-located public services and unlocked the value of public sector assets, including land for homes.